Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said he speaks to the team’s players at training camp about “using their platform to make a difference.” That difference-making can take many shapes. Many Chiefs players are active in charities and serve as spokesmen for various causes. And as Hunt sees it, making a difference can also include taking political stances. “Obviously we have players on both sides of the political spectrum, on both sides of whichever controversial issue you want to bring up,” the Chiefs’ owner said. ”I’m not at all concerned when our players use their platform to try and make a difference for what they believe in.” Perhaps no Chiefs player has been more visible with his politics than kicker Harrison Butker. Last weekend, Butker unveiled a political action committee, called Upright PAC, while endorsing Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley on social media. “We’re seeing our values under attack every day. In our schools, in the media, and even from our own government,” the PAC’s website says. “But we have a chance to fight back and reclaim the traditional values that have made this country great. That’s why UPRIGHT PAC was founded.” Butker gained national attention for his political views in mid-May after giving a commencement speech at Benedictine College in Atchison. In the speech, he said much of his success was made possible because the his wife, Isabelle, had embraced her role as a homemaker. Butker said his words weren’t meant to disparage women who enter the work force. His first interview after the speech came at Chiefs training camp in August. “I prayed about it, and I thought about it and I was very intentional with what I said, and I stand behind what I said,” Butker said at that time. “And I really believe if people knew me as a person and understood that I was coming from a place of love and not a place of trying to attack or put people down, that I only want the best for people, and that’s what I was trying to say there. I think the people that were in that gymnasium all understood what I was saying.” Last month, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said he preferred not to endorse a candidate. “I don’t want my place and my platform to be used to endorse a candidate,” he said. “My place is to inform people to get registered to vote. It’s to inform people to do their own research and then make the best decision for them and their family.”
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